Like this:

A recent online discussion got me thinking about taking “Crappy pictures” in poor light or uneventful non-photogenic locations. It’s easy to take a great picture of a gorgeous sunset at a stunning overlook. But you have to admit, it’s the subject matter making it great; it’s much harder to to make the ordinaryordinary extraordinary.

I really envy photographers that can create beauty where I saw none. But that means that the best way to challenge yourself is to go out and shoot in those situations. Digital shots are free, take a bunch of shots you won’t ever show anybody. It’s a great exercise for your photographic muscles. Bad photo days are the difficult challenge that will help you grow.

Example is my cell phone pic on an overcast day during my work break from the heart of the city. Not my best, probably not a “keeper”, but better than I thought I could pull off.

Like this:

Natural Bridges is a small enough park that you can really settle in and make it your own without too much work. I decided the year before that I wanted to do the full loop hike, hiking along the canyon bottom and hitting all 3 bridges together. The distance is respectable and even though half is on the mesa and half is in the canyon there is still some surprising ups and downs across the canyon bottom. But it’s all well worth it to be one with the desert.

Hiking across the mesa

All 3 bridges can be seen in one loop through Natural Bridges, the ranger advised starting out at Owachomo Bridge Parking lot and tackling the hike across the mesa first. The sun can be oppressive so it’s good to tackle the exposed section in the morning and spend the afternoon in the canyon with the odd shade.

Weathered Tree

The trail to Sipapu Bridge involves a few ladders and many stairs. And some interestingly weathered trees.

Sipapu Bridge

It’s hard to give the feeling of size in a picture, Sipapu Bridge is the second largest Natural Bridge in the world behind Rainbow Bridge. For a sense of scale those are full grown Cottonwood Trees looking like bushes below the bridge.

A tree in the canyon

The desert above the canyon is known as the Pygmy Forest because the lack of water and nutrients slows the tree’s growth. But in the bottom canyon trees grow tall and pools of water linger long after rains have past.

Native American Ruins

The canyon walls are full of relics of the time when the area was full of Anasazi.

Beneath Kachina Bridge

The massive tonnage of rock suspended with nothing below it is mind blowing. See the two hikers beneath for scale.

A religious Kiva under the bridge

Much of the canyon has protected Indian relics.

Slickrock carved by coursing water

After seeing the deep canyons around Lake Powell it’s hard to imagine that each was slowly and intricately cut by water through the hard sandstone.

Slickrock under Owachomo Bridge

Owachomo Bridge is the “Old Man” of the park. The water no longer runs under it after a storm, having etched another route that bypasses the Bridge. Now it just slowly weathers until it will finally collapse.

Plus it was a bit of a relief finally seeing the end of the hike in sight after so many blind curves I expected to be the last turn only to have another canyon curve in the distance.

Comb Ridge curves off into the distance.

The hike took most of the day and I wanted to be back to Moab before night fell. But there was still enough time to get some quick pics of Comb Ridge. The ridge stretches in a giant crescent to the south, it’s not very developed but the area is full of Native American history and long rarely visited slickrock canyons. I hope to check it more in depth in the future.

Here is the map full of pictures from the second day down at Natural Bridges:

When doing the big Southern Utah loop through the National Parks I realized half a day in Natural Bridges was not enough and vowed to go back. The added benefit is I could plan a roadtrip down through San Rafael Swell, Upper Glen Canyon, and leave past Comb Ridge, Canyonlands, and Moab.

Golden waves of grain

Although the goal was to hike Natural Bridges, getting there is half the fun. Plus some big beautiful storm clouds were chasing me out of Northern Utah. I checked weather.gov beforehand and the storm hitting the north wouldn’t impact me in the south.

I guess the alternative was getting stolen too often.

It took me a few second to figure out why they wouldn’t be able to post mile marker 69??…
Oh! Now I get it!

Barren Landscape

It was slightly longer to take I-70 to the monument but I wanted to drive through San Rafael Swell to scout for a future trip. After descending through pine mountains you come out on the barren desert plateau.

Looking over the San Rafael Swell

The San Rafael Swell is currently BLM land very popular with ATV and slot canyon explorers. So far oil and gas interests haven’t been encroaching, but if any unprotected place in Utah is befitting a being elevated to National Park status it’s this place. If you like any of the Utah Mighty 5 parks, you’ll love San Rafael Swell.

The Long Straight Road

After I-70 breaks through the broken edge of the Swell it’s a long straight ride across the desert plains that separate the Swell from Canyonlands and the Green and Colorado Rivers.

Slickrock dunes

After a last chance for gas in Hanksville more southward travel changes from desert plains as you start to cut down through the slickrock towards the canyons of the Colorado River. This area is prime slot canyon territory.

Glen Canyon Monuments

The Colorado River sliced through the sedimentary rock carving complex canyons into the desert named Glen Canyon. Covering much of the southern portion of Utah.

The north end of Lake Powell

In 1966 Glen Canyon dam was completed 185 river miles away creating Lake Powell. It’s difficult to define where the river ends and the lake begins but Hite crossing is generally considered the north end of Lake Powell. The Lake used to cover the surrounding floodplains but recent drought has left the marina high and dry.

Hite Bridge crosses the Colorado

Even though it slices through nearly a quarter of the state the Colorado River only has 3 drive-able river crossings in Utah. Hite and nearby Dirty Devil Bridges were considered “The world’s most beautiful bridges” when completed in 1966. I don’t know about that but the setting could definitely sway the vote.

Straight to Red Rock Plateau

After the flat desert plain it’s easy to see why this area of Utah is known as Canyon Country.

The International Space Station crosses the Milky Way

Natural Bridges was the worlds first “International Dark Sky Park.” There are few places with as low of light pollution as this. And in summer the core of the Milky Way is in full view, occasionally the International Space Station and the odd satellite make an appearance as well.

Utah State Route 12 passes through or near 3 of Utah’s National Parks and Monuments, 3 of its State Parks, and has been designated a National Scenic Byway. The highway makes up about half of the drive linking all of Utah’s “Mighty Five” National Parks and makes up the most scenic portion of the drive. (Check the bottom of page for a full map of the trip and many more pictures.)

The start of Utah’s Scenic Byway 12

The northern end is an unassuming junction in Torrey, the gateway to Capitol Reef National Park.

The Henry Mountains, over Capitol Reef from the Aquarius Plateau

The completed highway is one of the newest in Utah; although parts of it have existed before it wasn’t fully paved until the 1985 when the dirt road from Boulder over the mountain to Grover was paved. From the Aquarius Plateau you can see out over the southern end of Capitol Reef National Park.

Boulder Creek from Highway 12

Due to the raw physical terrain building roads in the area was always a challenge. The town of Boulder relied on pack mule for mail service until the Hell’s Backbone road was a completed by the CCC in 1935. Electricity service was not brought to town until 1947.

Driving along the top of the Hogsback.

Hell’s Backbone is an exciting road to drive with sharp drop-offs on either side of the highway as it drops down into Calf Creek Canyon. Calf Creek is a great camping site but quite popular and fills up during the busy season (I got a site at 4pm on a Thursday, it was full by 5:30pm).

Upper Calf Creek Falls. Careful finding you way down from the top.Erosion beneath the waves

There are 2 main falls in the canyon, Upper and Lower Calf Creek Falls. Lower is much more popular, Upper is just as beautiful but the trails isn’t as well established and has a much more drastic elevation change from the top of the canyon to the bottom.

Sunrise at Head of the rocks in Grand Staircase Escalante

A short drive from Calf Creek is the Head of the Rocks overlook. This gives a great view of the Calf Creek area from the opposite end of Hell’s Backbone.

The last rays of Sun

The establishment of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument has made the towns along Highway 12 the prime jumping off points to the northern half of the monument. There are multiple campsites and RV parks to utilize since GSENM doesn’t have many well developed campsites within yet.

Devil’s Garden picnic area, no camping

Shortly before the town of Escalante is the Hole in the Rock road that leads into GSENM. The road is well maintained and well traveled so passenger cars can handle it unless it rains. When it rains it turns to mud that will swallow 4×4 vehicles as well. Avoid the road if wet, not only is there a chance of getting stuck but the muddy ruts damage the road when they dry. The BLM will actually close the road if it’s bad so be aware as it can affect your plans.

Metatate Arch

Halfway down the road is Devils Garden, a cluster of unique slickrock hoo-doos and some delicate arches. Climbing on slickrock is ok but is prohibited on the arches themselves. The general rule for National Parks and Monuments is: if it’s has a name, you can’t climb on it.

Powell Point

The road continues down into Henrieville and Cannonville, and a short detour south is another main road into GSENM that passes Kodachrome Basin State Park.

The Grand Parade. 2 of the white columns can bee see in it.

Kodachrome is more slickrock fins, towers, and arches. There are also a bunch of geologically unique limestone columns peaking through the sandstone. Many theories have been given as to their creation, one being that they are remnants of ancient thermal springs and geysers like in Yellowstone, but now the surrounding earth has eroded away leaving the hard-water deposits that were once underground.

Desert Antelope with Kodachrome Basin and Bryce Canyon behind

Kodachrome sits below the Bryce Canyon mesa but the type of rock is different so it’s not an extension of the same formaiton.

Below Bryce Canyon

The highway climbs from the bottom of the Bryce Canyon amphitheater. From the top of the mesa a short detour off Highway 12 heads into the heart of the park.

South past Bryce the highway goes through Red Canyon in the Dixie National Forest before ending at the Highway-89 junction. Many people will continue north to Panguitch as the end point, or turn south at the junction towards Zion National Park (an hour away).

End, Highway 12

The full road map and all pictures taken on the trip (the good and bad).

One of the original reasons I switched to using mirrorless cameras is the big size improvement over traditional DSLR cameras. In the early days of digital it was hard to pack all the electronics into a camera and sizes exploded. Now that large size has become the established standard and the classic film SLR cameras look tiny in comparison.

SLR on the left, Two DSLRs on the right. cropped via 55Laney69 on Flickr.com

The first 35mm film camera I got when I was a kid was my grandfathers old Kodak 35. It had a simple rangefinder form-factor and was completely manual. Fast forward a few decades when the first mirrorless cameras were coming out and DPReview had a glowing review of the Panasonic GF1 and it’s 20mm pancake lens. I loved using it, it made me feel like I was starting out new with a fresh eye for photography. And it’s easy to see why compared to the Kodak 35. I was literally going back to my roots (actually my first camera was a Kodak Ektra 1 but I was about 6 years old so it doesn’t count).

Kodak 35 and Lumix GF1 GX1 size comparison.

Compared to the current DSLRs the GF1 looks like a toy. But again, although the technology was now here to minimize size (check out the Sony NEX cameras) the big manufactures are wedded to the massive DSLR because it “Looks more professional” Though admittedly, if you were hiring a wedding photographer and one had a big DSLR and the other had a tiny mirrorless which would you choose?
Did the thought of “What do their wedding photos look like” even enter your mind before you started to lean one way?

I’ve been through a few other cameras since the GF1 but now I’m loving the Olympus OMD EM5 mk.II. Again it’s easy to see why. Here’s a picture of it next to my Nikon FE SLR (same model on the left in the comparison picture at the top of the post).

Nikon FE and Olympus OMD EM5 Mk2 size comparison.

Most people consider the DSLR the evolution of the film SLR but I think the smaller mirrorless cameras are spiritually the more accurate descendants of film cameras. Even the biggest camera setups used by professional photojournalists in the days of film were a fraction of the size and weight of the big heavy DSLRs you see people using today. And form factor has a major impact on how and how much you use a camera. The majority of my photography involves hiking, backpacking, or lots of on foot work where shaving off the extra 10-20 pounds of gear can make or break a hike into the backcountry. Conversely many people aren’t even photographing with their big DSLR because of the bulk of simply carrying it around. It stays on a shelf at home and they just use their iPhone instead.

A feather light afternoon wandering the streets with a tiny rangefinder style camera with a panckake lens compared to the physical back pain of lugging a huge DSLR around will quickly change your mind on why cramming more into a smaller package is more than just a passing trend with cameras.

Of course on the far end of small size there are cameras like my dad’s Minox B, but I figure just leave those to James Bond and the other secret agents.

I think it’s good to take the “Postcard Picture” that everybody takes, you want to say you’ve been there too. But then the next step is to do your own thing with it. For better or for worse try your own spin on it. Too many photographers get caught up in chasing the amazing picture that everybody else took and you end up with a large group of sheep doing the same thing and a bunch of identical pics being sold to doctors offices everywhere.

Google images of Turret arch through North Window

One picture I wanted to do was of Turret Arch being viewed through North Window Arch in Arches. A quick google search shows the “Postcard View”, sunrise through one arch shining on the other arch. Or just before sunrise through the arches, or just after sunrise through the arches. But what did it look like at sunset?

I did some searching and found the sun would almost line up the two arches in winter (unfortunately not quite shining through both arches at the same time). But it allowed me to get a unique version of the same perspective that I still haven’t seen anywhere else.

North Window Turret Arch Sunset. 4 Arches in 1 shot.

The perspective is identical because there is literally 1 place to stand, and maybe 5 other photographers can cram in to the side but they won’t have Turret Arch centered. Next time I’m down that I might take a picture of them taking pictures. Sometimes it’s fun to turn the camera on the photographers themselves.